Miriam
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About a month ago I was intrigued to read that Finland was about to embark on one of the most radical education reform programs ever undertaken by a nation state–scraping traditional “teaching by subject” in favor of “teaching by topic”. It was big news because Finland is the first nation to realize that they need…
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We are constantly faced with problem solving situations at work and in daily life, which makes problem solving one of the most important skills that students can learn. In an economy that heavily relies on expert thinking and complex communication, the need to posses those deep learning skills, which consist of problem-solving, critical thinking, communication,…
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About a week ago, while searching on google, I discovered a website that intrigued me. It was the site of New Pedagogies for Deep Learning–a global partnership between education experts, schools systems, philanthropic and private sector organizations and hundreds of schools around the world. Their hope is to gather the experiences of all that are involved…
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It has been a long time since my last blog entry, but I was busy founding a new educational startup called Project Pals. Project Pals is a web-based application where students can create projects with others. Project Pals is focused on “How to Solve the Problem” based on established findings in cognitive science. The application…
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As an advocate of project-based learning,my students were always busy working on projects. While observing them work,it always occurred to me,that there was a fundamental flaw in the way they were approaching problems. Instead of engaging in an investigative process of discovery that leads to deep learning,they approached it as a process of searching information…
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As soon as I walked into this middle school classroom,I noticed that it was completely different from what I’d seen before. The classroom was quite big and students were working in groups, gathered around round tables or sitting on the floor next to their laptops. The elevated noise level was apparent, but no one seemed…
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One of my favorite things to do while reading a book is creating a vision of what the scenes and characters look like. For as long as the reading lasts,I can turn into an imaginary director –staging scenes,dressing characters,and putting on my own show. Later,if the book is made into a movie,I enjoy comparing my…
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In a typical middle school, a social studies teacher was contemplating how to commemorate black history month in a way that will leave a lasting impact on students who had no idea what type of life, humiliations, and struggles the black community in America had experienced. She decided to pick “The Story of an Escape:Flight…
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One of the major stumbling blocks that students face when conducting research is how to construct meaning from what they read. Research usually starts with a question or topic that the teacher has assigned or the student is curious about. In most cases,the students use a search engine to look up as many sources as…
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I know that I promised to continue my “Project-based learning Google templates”series,but I could not help myself but share my thoughts with you about a subject that has had me thinking for a while- typing. A few weeks ago,our school held an open house for prospective parents. As parents walked through the computer lab,one parent…
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Imagine a classroom getting ready to start working on a project. The teacher has just assigned the driving question–a question designed to look into the heart of a discipline and serve the purpose of organizing and driving activities in the project. Getting ready to plan activities for this project turns out to be a challenging…
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Last year,I introduced Google Sites as a presentation and collaboration tool for my students. They used it to create projects covering the California Missions,Native Americans,and each of the 50 states. On the surface,the sites functioned as an online replacement of traditional paper. In essence,students were able to create quite sophisticated projects with it. For example,students…